A wide variety of fluid flow measuring devices have been developed for use in fluid delivery systems in an attempt to accurately determine the volume of the fluid delivered through the delivery system and, more particularly, to the volume of fluid delivered to a particular user of the fluid delivery system. Most natural gas utilities, for example, provide a gas meter at each user location. Such conventional gas meters typically include a diaphragm-type flow sensing apparatus having an accuracy that varies widely as the function of the relative pressure drop across the diaphragm and a number of environmental conditions, such as ambient temperature and relative atmospheric pressure. Such conventional gas meters are typically expensive, bulky, and very difficult to repair and maintain. Moreover, conventional gas and water utility meters require periodic manual reading of the meter in order to determine consumer usage of the fluid over a particular period of time. The manually collected fluid meter information must then be input to a computerized billing system which subsequently issues a bill to the consuming user on a periodic basis.
There is a trend in gas and water utilities towards increased competition for consumer business. Multi-tiered pricing schemes, for example, are currently being used by some utilities to charge users varying rates for gas and water depending on a particular usage. In accordance with such a pricing scheme, essential uses of natural gas, such as for air and water heating, for example, are generally priced at a lower rate than gas used for luxury purposes, such as for heating outdoor pools. Further, it is anticipated that enhanced control over gas and water delivery systems from remote locations will be desirable for providing enhanced service and safety features. It can be appreciated that conventional fluid metering devices and systems cannot be practicably adapted to provide such enhanced functionality, which will certainly be required in a de-regulated competitive utility market.